Ryan's Mortgage Blog:

As you may have heard the feds cut the federal funds rate again today by .25 points, and the prime rate will fall to 5%. This action is good news for people who borrow money on loans that are linked to the prime rate. Here is an excerpt from the reserves comments today, "Recent information indicates that economic activity remains weak. Household and business spending has been subdued and labor markets have softened further." Tell us something we don't know...they always seem to be a step behind, or maybe I just watch too much Jim Kramer and Mad Money.

Mortgage rates were slightly on the rise last week preparing for today's meeting. Many believe the mortgage rates have bottomed out give or take 1/4%, but we've heard that before. I don’t think the feds can afford to do many more cuts, if any at all, because I don't think the US dollar can take much more of a beating.

The changes in rate affect oil/gas prices and I found a couple of informative articles that help explain how the rates affect oil. The bottom line that I found is that gas prices probably aren't going to go down any time soon, but the bubble will bust sooner or later once the dollar gets stronger. I have other opinions about the gas and oil problem but this isn't the place to get into it :)

Here are the articles, click the links:

http://money.cnn.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com

For any mortgage related questions I can be reached at RBaker@PeregrineLending.com or 805-540-0866

Did you see the front page of the Tribune today? "Housing Market Crisis Hits County Sales"

After reading the article all I could do was shake my head. This was so off the mark. The explanation of why the median condo price went up from someone that supposedly follows trends in Central Coast real estate was not based on any real statistical info either. If you look at the individual city sold stats about midway down on the www.SloWatch.com site, you'll see that condo sales in the first quarter of 2008 were really low. You can't put much weight on a median home price when using a data sample that's so small. A few more (or less) condo sales could have made the median condo price show a decline.

While I don't dispute the "news" about March sales from Data Quick, I've blogged many times how this data is not a reflection of what is happening in the market TODAY. March sales were January and February pending sales since it takes 30-60 days for the escrow process before a home is recorded as a sale.

I'm about to do the statistics for April and update the SloWatch site. As of a few minutes ago, we're at 561 Pending Sales for the month. While we were looking that we may break 600 for the month, we'll see if today and tomorrow will result in reaching that number. Regardless, April will continue the upward trend in market activity that we've seen since the beginning of the year. Just look at the first chart on the SloWatch site and look where the green line (pending sales) is going. The other data to look at is inventory levels. If inventory levels take a jump up, that will create more competition and further price pressure. If they come down, then there is less choices for Buyers which is good news for Sellers.

But prices are continuing to drop. Part of this is due to foreclosures being the new comp for a neighborhood. Also, Sellers are becoming more realistic about the housing market and are lowering their price to sell. What's going to stop prices from dropping is more Buyers and lower inventory. We'll see the direction the April stats show we are going after I update them after the end of the month.

What is going on lately? We've had people robbed at motels over the past several days. Last week, someone walked into a real estate office and robbed the Broker at gunpoint, leaving with only a few dollars.

Then over the weekend, another real estate agent had her purse stolen at an Open House by two college-aged girls who quickly charged over $10,000 on her credit card at Best Buy and the Apple store in SLO.

Be extra careful at Open Houses. Put away any medicine you have as thiefs like to check the medicine cabinet as it's easy to pocket.

There was an article in today's Tribune saying that Notice of Defaults (NOD) have jumped in the last few months which will result in more foreclosures soon. Home owners have 90 days to resolve the NOD before the next step of the foreclosure process.

If you are interested in seeing Notice of Defaults, you can go to www.foreclosure.com. Enter in the zip code of the city you want to see, then click the "Preforeclosures" tab. It will cost you $40/month if you want to see the full street address but unless the street is long, you'll be able to tell if someone in your neighbor has received a NOD without needing to pay the monthly site fee.

Health magazine rated their Top 10 restaurant chains and only one on the list is in SLO County and it's at #10. Are you ready...Denny's! Olive Garden came in at #9 which is good news for Santa Maria. Here's the Top 10 article and their reason why Denny's is #10.

Another thing great about Tivo is that you can pause those screens they flash that have the small print on them. I had the TV on in the background while doing some stuff on the computer (what else!) and I heard an ad say "and make sure you can afford the monthly payments". I thought that was kinda weird so I went back to see what the ad was. It's one of these get cash places that require no collateral. They say "we trust you". I paused the small print screen and the first line said "The APR for a typical loan of $2,600 is 99.25%...". Wow, I thought credit card advances had outrageous interest. It's CashCall.com if any of you are needing some extra cash :)

This market has definitely PICKED UP! Lots of Buyers are out looking (and buying). Even on the higher end. The Keith Byrd Team just closed a $3.6 Million property in Caycuos yesterday!

While foreclosures are still impacting the price in some neighborhoods, it does appear that we have hit the bottom as far as market activity and we're now on an upswing.

The Chili's in Arroyo Grande is now open. You can tell by the 30 people waiting outside for a table at dinnertime!

I love Chili's. They were the first restaurant that I ever had curly fries at. Their soup and salad combo is a good deal too (and their honey mustard salad dressing is yummy). I did blog about Chili's before it opened and said that I usually wait a few weeks before visiting a new restaurant so they can work out the kinks but my family decided to try it tonite. I thought going at 5 PM we'd be safe but I was wrong since the crowd waiting was already huge. We didn't even ask how long the wait was and went somewhere else. Oh well, there will be plenty of other times.

Years ago I contacted Chili's Corporate and asked if they had any restaurants planned for SLO County. They said they didn't and I replied with why I thought they should look at the Central Coast as I thought it was a great opportunity for them. They said they'd forward my suggestion to their Development group.

I don't know if I anything to do with them coming into the County but it's fun to think I did!

My team has a listing coming on the market in SLO next Friday that I predict won't be on the market that long. It's 4 bedrooms, move-in ready, and will be listed under $700K! If you are out looking for something like this, it may be worthwhile to wait to check it out before you make any other offers....

The Wall Street Journal's real estate talk site answers a question from someone trying to sell their condo without a real estate agent and they haven't had any showings. Read what the WSJ tells the homeowner here and then I'll give you my 2 cents.

The usual tone of this type of article is that real estate agents feel threatened by do-it-yourselfers and this article is no different. But what I find really interesting is that the suggestions given in this article are what I consider to not only be expensive but also a waste of money, which seems counter to the "save money" reason they aren't using a real estate agent in the first place.

The author does correctly state that buyers start their search on the Web these days. Then she says the homeowner needs to get a web site for the property. What the author doesn't understand is that getting a web site means nothing unless people find it. And the way you find a web site is through a search engine (Google in particular). Plus, you need to be found on the FIRST PAGE of search engine results these days. Because there are only 10 maximum spaces on the first page of a search engine lookup, not many websites will be found. For the popular real estate search terms, not only do you have local Realtors and Brokerages trying to be on the first page but other companies too, some of these being large nationwide web sites that are paying people $$$ to get them high up in the search engines. Because of all this, 99%+ of Realtor websites will NEVER be found by Buyers.

So what chance does this homeowner have of having his condo website seen? That's easy...ZERO of a chance to be seen in the natural search results since it takes time and effort to get a site to rank well for a popular search phrase. But, there is something called "Sponsored Results" or "Pay Per Click". I'm sure you've seen the Sponsored Results section when you search on something on Google. Both at the top of the page and down the right side. Most people don't even look at these but it's the only chance some websites have to be seen at all. The way you get in the Sponsored section is bid on how much you're willing to pay when someone clicks on your link. That's right, every time you click on one of these Sponsored Results links, Google charges the web site owner (that's why their stock price is so high!).

The price that is charged is based on how popular the search term is (how many people use that term) and how many web site owners want to be on the Sponsored Results section for that term so they bid on the position. The placement at the top of the page goes to the highest bidder at a given time. For something like "San Luis Obispo Real Estate", the cost per click is around $5. There are some keyword phrases that cost as much as $8 a click. So just like ebay, you make bids on how much you will pay. A portion of the clicks that a web site owner gets charged for are what's called "Click Fraud" or people clicking on the links that have no intention of really wanting to go to the site. There used to be automated programs that would go around an click on pay per click links but Google has supposedly found ways to detect these programs and not charge the web site owners but that can't prevent individual users clicking on links.

To prevent someones bank account from being wiped out after a day of clicks, web owners place daily maximums on their account. So for example, say they define a maximum of $40/day. For a link that costs $5/click, that would be 8 clicks. Once it reaches the maximum, the link disappears from the Sponsored Results section and won't show up again until the next day. That doesn't sound like many clicks (especially when half could be Click Fraud) but the cost adds up quick. $40/day x 30 days = $1200 month. Not only would the condo homeowner need to budget to pay for search engine exposure, they would also need to learn how to choose the best search terms and be able to setup a Pay Per Click campaign.

I spend a lot of time to keep my websites showing up high in the search engines so people find and visit my sites. For example, my latest year-to-date stats for SloCountyHomes.com shows that I've had 15,287 clicks to my site from Google searches and an additional 6,183 from Yahoo. My LocalLinks.com site doesn't have quite as many but still over 10,000 for both search engines. If a local Realtor or Brokerage wanted to have as much exposure for their website as my sites, they'd need to be paying $25,000+ per month on Pay Per Click!

The Wall Street Journal article then suggests advertising in newspapers. First they recommend the paper in the largest city nearest their condo, then in other areas. The author even suggests to advertise outside of the US. I would guess that the author hasn't advertised in a newspaper lately, especially one in a metropolitan area or they'd know this was costly. Even our little ole local Tribune charges $75 for a teeny real estate classified ad to run on a single Saturday. Want to run the ad 4 times a month? Well, that's $300. Start adding additional days and multiple papers and you're quickly over $1,000/month. But why would you even waste your money on a newspaper when the statistics (and even the Wall Street Journal author) says that Buyers start on the Internet? The latest California Association of Realtors study showed that only 4% of Buyers looked at a newspaper when searching for real estate. So, 96% of Buyers aren't even looking at the newspaper these days!

The way to sell any property in today's market is to price it right, present it well, and get LOTS of exposure. Putting it on a website that shows up high in the search engines for the phrases that Buyers search on is the way your property will be seen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and from ANYWHERE in the world. If you don't believe the potential reach, check out the visitor map for my blog by clicking here. The bigger the red dot, the more people from that area are visiting.

The Wall Street Journal author then closes with suggesting they get a real estate lawyer and someone to show the property when the home owner isn't there. She also states that other agents won't bring them buyers because of the "hassle". Hmm.....since she admits it's a hassle then why should you expect agents to bring their Buyer?

Sounds like to me that once you pay for all this advertising and different people to help you out, you really haven't saved anything on commission and you've restricted yourself on the exposure to Buyers you could get. The author also fails to note that the majority of For Sale By Owners (FSBOs) end up listing with a Realtor once they have tried to sell their home themselves and weren't successful. With the importance of getting Internet exposure to sell a home these days, it will be even tougher for FSBOs (and Realtors with invisible websites).

I just checked the month-to-date MLS stats. We've already reached 500 Pending Sales. This is looking like this will be the most active month we've had in the past TWO YEARS.

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
Homeowners who have a HELOC need to be aware of some trends going on with lenders. For those who don't what a HELOC is, it stands for Home Equity Line Of Credit. It is a loan set up similar to a credit card, where you have a maximum amount you can draw from, rather than for a fixed dollar amount in one lump some like other loans.

The "trend" I am talking about is lenders are reviewing most, if not all, HELOCs and freezing some. Many people are receiving letters in the mail that their home equity line has been cutt off. This includes people with who have never even touched their home equity account and still have the whole balance left to use. According to CNN.com, lenders are trying to stem losses from subprime mortgages and other high-risk loans, by cutting off these HELOCs. As of September, delinquencies on HELOCs were up 47% year over year, according to Economy.com; the numbers are expected to be worse in 2008. I have some friends from the Bay Area that have had their HELOC cut off and they didn't see it coming at all. They have always paid on time and have plenty of equity in their house.

If your HELOC hasn't been frozen you need to know your risk:

According to CNN.com these risks include:
- Area housing prices have fallen by 10% or more.
- People who bought their home within the last couple of years with little money down are seen as risks. Maybe even people who are in an Adjustable Rate Mortgage. Who knows who the lenders see as a "risk".
- Banks have tightened their guidelines for new HELOCs. In years past you could get a HELOC for up to 100% of the value of your house. It has dropped to 60-90% depending on the lender and area. You should call your bank and ask what the loan-to-value cap is on new HELOCs. If your house debt is above that, your line could be at risk.
-A change in credit score or a missed payment could also flag your account. Reread your contract to see if such factors allow the lender to cut you off.

If you have been "frozen" from you HELOC, you can still fight it. The letter from the lender should explain why you were cut off, and if you think it's untrue you should fight it. For instance, if they say your credit score has declined, but you know it hasn't, run a report and send it to them. Maybe even have your home appraised if the value of the home is in questions.

Another scenario is you could get a loan from a different bank. If you have equity and decent credit, you probably would qualify with a different lender. I'd be happy to help assist you if you have any questions regarding the matter, or if you wanted to see if you would qualify for another loan. I can be reached at rbaker@PeregrineLending.com or 805-540-0866.

And just when you thought I couldn't offer you any more good stuff through my website...I have yet something else for you!

My free home valuations have been enhanced to include a property report. When you receive the valuation report, you'll see a "Get Cyberhomes Report" button at the top next to the Cyberhomes logo. Click on this and you'll get lots more info, including comparable details and graphs of interesting data.

http://www.slocountyhomes.com/home_price_page.htm

According to DataQuick, here are the Notices of Default issued in Q1 2008 vs. Q1 2007:

San Luis Obispo County
Q1 2008 - 385
Q1 2007 - 181

Santa Barbara County
Q1 2008 - 897
Q1 2007 - 372

I've added a new informational report to assist you and I really like this one. When you request a report, it goes out and gets the current info from our local MLS system. So, if a home Sold today (and the agent updated the MLS), you'll see it on your report.

There's a lot of info on the report so take your time to click around and see all it provides. You can view the info on graphs, choose smaller reporting periods and immediate display them (3 month, last 30 days, this week), and see Community and School info.

I just set it up so if you have any problems with it, please let me know. I'm not going to put a link on my home page until I know it's working ok.

You can access the new MLS Market Snapshot reports here.

Title companies and mortgage brokers aren't supposed to do anything to incent real estate agents to send business their way. This is a big time violation under RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act). For example, Title Companies used to give agents a gift when a escrow closed such as a free car wash or gift basket. This is a No No but no one was reporting them. The RESPA rules say that you can't give anything that an agent would pay for themselves. If you go into a real estate office you're going to find things like piles of notepads with a mortgage brokers name on it. This is ok since they are using this to promote their business but they can't give an agent a notepad with the agent's name on it as that is something that an agent would normally pay for.

It was in the news today that Remax in Colorado is suing First American Title because First American canceled a marketing agreement where Remax was getting paid over $600,000 a year by First American for exclusive advertising to Remax agents. This lawsuit caught the attention of investigators and now they are looking to see if a violation occured.

"The Colorado Division of Real Estate has subpoenaed RE/MAX franchisees and staff members, and is investigating whether RE/MAX agents were provided with incentives such as vacation time or company-generated leads to steer consumers into purchasing title insurance from First American."

The Tribune reported today that the County is looking at requring homes in Los Osos to be retrofitted with low-water fixtures and toilets when the home is sold because of the water concerns in Los Osos.

There is also a Bill in the Assembly that the California Association of Realtors (CAR) is opposing.

AB 2678 will require a state agency to set up a process to require point-of-sale energy efficiency audits that will cost up to $400 and ultimately will require point-of-sale energy efficiency retrofits that may cost thousand of dollars.

Here are CAR's reasons for the opposition:

- AB 2678 will hurt your business. Heaping costly requirements on all sales will slow every residential AND commercial transaction, further weakening the real estate market and the economy.

- Point-of-sale approaches take too long. Research shows that only 22% of the properties most in need of energy efficiency retrofits will actually be sold by 2020. AB 2678 will be grossly ineffective in achieving its goals.

- AB 2678 will hurt housing affordability. The mandatory audit and retrofit requirements ultimately created could add THOUSANDS of dollars to every transaction. And every $1,000 increase in the price of a home disqualifies 26,600 families from owning.

Wondering what SLO County cities are the most active right now?? I looked at the 188 Pending Sales thus far this month (single family homes) and here is how they break down:

21- Arroyo Grande
26 - Atascadero
2 - Avila Beach
1- Bradley
7 - Cambria
8 - Cayucos
7 - Grover Beach
2 - Los Osos
8 - Morro Bay
18 - Nipomo
2 - Oceano
55 - Paso Robles
8 - Pismo Beach
19 - San Luis Obispo
2 - San Miguel
3 - Templeton

There's a couple of new restaurants to try out.

The waffle place in SLO has just opened. It's right at Los Osos Valley Road and 101 where Denny's used to be.

Chili's in Arroyo Grande is scheduled to open next week too. It's up in the Trader Joe's parking lot, across from Walmart.

I usually give a new restaurant a week or two to work out the kinks before I visit them.

I calculated the Median Home Prices for homes sold the first Quarter of 2008 (January 1 - March 31). Below is a chart that compares the median home price between Q1 2008 and Q1 2007. I also updated the individual city sold info. To view these, go to the home page of http://www.slowatch.com/ and scroll down to "City Stats". Then click on "Sold Info" under the city you want to see the Sold detail.

Not sure what happened in Los Osos other than the mixture of homes were more on the higher end of the price curve than in other Quarters. Check out the detail and you'll see how many homes in each price range sold.

I'm also researching quarterly median home prices since 2004 and I'm about half way done. I plan to provide graphs for each city so you can see what the median home price has done over the past 4 years.

	Q1 2008	Q1 2007
Arroyo Grande	$585,000	$635,000	-7.9%
Atascadero	$437,500	$510,000	-14.2%
Cambria	$680,000	$642,000	5.9%
Cayucos	$900,000	$907,500	-0.8%
Grover Beach	$452,500	$520,250	-13.0%
Los Osos	$634,500	$497,500	27.5%
Morro Bay	$480,000	$595,000	-19.3%
Nipomo	$521,500	$565,000	-7.7%
Oceano	$353,450	$369,900	-4.4%
Paso Robles	$396,500	$443,000	-10.5%
Pismo Beach	$670,000	$789,500	-15.1%
San Luis Obispo	$625,000	$699,000	-10.6%
Santa Maria	$288,750	$393,450	-26.6%

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:

Your Credit Score is obviously a big part of obtaining a loan and getting a good rate. I have pointed out some tips before, but with tightening guidelines, it is even more important to take care of your credit score now more than ever before. I can't stress enough to take care of any problems you have with your credit score now instead of waiting until you need a loan. Problems with your report cannot be fixed over night.

There are free services out there that will give you your credit score, but the ones I have used seem to be lacking information or not as accurate compared to the ones I order through our company's partnering credit agency (CCI - www.ccireports.com). I pay around $15 to get a detailed credit report that even lists all of your lenders names and contact information if you want to dispute something with them. CCI allows us to offer our clients a credit analyzer, rapid rescore, and other services you can check out on their website. As a note, my personal credit card company offers me a free credit score rating every month and also a free report once a year. You may check with yours to take advantage of it, but like I said, it may not be as comprehensive as some others.

If you need help fixing your credit or getting rid of errors/problems, your mortgage broker, such as myself :), can help you. Sometimes it's as easy as running your credit, giving you advice, and maybe calling your credit company to alert them of an error. Sometimes legal action needs to take place, which your broker can also help you with. But if you want to do it on your own, I have a site that was referred to me by some co-workers and they were pleased with their services. I haven't used them myself because I like to handle things on my own, but I thought I would share it with you guys because I know not all of you are going to come to me for help. The site is www.lexingtonlaw.com They offer a free 11 page guide to helping you understand your credit and how the score is calculated. The guide also tells you what affects your score (I'll cheat and give you the list, but I recommend reading the full thing to understand it):

- Previous Credit Performance
- Current level of indebtedness
- Amount of time credit has been in use
- Pursuit of new credit
- Types of credit experience

I have a copy of this guide I can email to you if you didn't want to go on their site, but I recommend visiting the site because they have some other helpful articles. Enjoy.

I can be reached at Ryan Baker or 805-540-0866.

PS - How beautiful is the weather right now in SLO?! Amazing!

Mid-month Central Coast MLS Statistics check

As of a few minutes ago, here's where we stand so far for the month:

New Listings - 417
Pendings - 304
Price Changes - 512

The number of Pendings we've had so far is big news. If we keep this pace, we'll break 600 for the month. We haven't had over 600 Pending Sales since April 2006 (www.SloWatch.com).

The postage goes up again on May 12th to 42 cents for a first class stamp. You can still get the "forever" stamp for 41 cents which can be used no matter what they raise it to in the future.

For those of you still working on your tax return and are new to the area, don't count on post offices being open until midnight tomorrow as in the big cities. Around here, it's got to get to the Post Office by 5 PM unless it's changed this year.

Here are a couple of photos from the Avila oil pier. This was a great opportunity to see Avila and Port San Luis from a different perspective. Some of the people I talked to said they've lived in the area for 30+ years had never been out on this pier before (and were excited to have the opportunity). Didn't hurt that the weather was PERFECT!

(click photo for larger image)

The former oil pier (now Cal Poly pier) in Avila Beach is open to the public from 9 - Noon tomorrow (Saturday). They will have some robotics demonstrations and other stuff but it's also a chance to get photos of Avila Beach and Port San Luis you usually can't get.

Top Ten Secrets You Need To Know To Buy a Foreclosure Short Sale

A longtime Blog reader just went through a Short Sale and wanted to share her experiences with anyone else considering the same. This is good info!

Click to read the article "Top Ten Secrets You Need To Know To Buy a Foreclosure Short Sale"

You might have heard about a homeowner suing a Realtor in San Diego saying that they paid too much for the home. The couple claimed the agent rushed them to close the deal before they found out comparable sale prices for neighboring homes. The couple sued the agent for $150,000, the amount they said they overpayed.

It went to a Jury trial and they sided with the Realtor. This is what the jury foreman said:

“We felt that in any kind of purchase, especially one that big – and most of us have had our own situations we'd been through – the bottom line really stops with you,” jury forewoman Wendi Brick told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Whose final responsibility is to sign a contract? It's yours."

This is further proof that a Realtor needs to provide a site like SloCountyHomes.com if they want to offer full service to their clients. These days, a Realtor without a great website is a Realtor without a great service.

Reminder!

Today is the last day to put your property tax payment in the mail. If it isn't in the mailbox before midnight, it will be delinquent and you'll pay the 10% late fee.

The chart below lists the cities that have, on average, the most clear days per year. The weather station used in our area is in Santa Maria and we're 13th on the list with 176 clear days. We get 110 partly cloudy days a year and 80 cloudy days. A clear day denotes zero to 3/10 average sky cover. Partly cloudy is 4/10 to 7/10 tenths. Cloudy is 8/10 to 10/10 tenths.

City Sunny Days A Year YUMA,AZ 242 PHOENIX,AZ 211 LAS VEGAS,NV 210 BISHOP,CA 201 FRESNO,CA 194 EL PASO,TX 193 TUCSON,AZ 193 BAKERSFIELD,CA 191 SACRAMENTO,CA 188 LOS ANGELES C.O.,CA 186 STOCKTON,CA 184 WINSLOW,AZ 177 SANTA MARIA,CA 176 BLUE CANYON,CA 174 REDDING,CA 172 ROSWELL,NM 168 ALBUQUERQUE,NM 167 MIDLAND-ODESSA,TX 165 MOUNT SHASTA, CA 164 CLAYTON,NM 162 FLAGSTAFF,AZ 162 LUBBOCK,TX 160 SAN FRANCISCO AP,CA 160 LONG BEACH,CA 159 RENO,NV 158 At the bottom of the list are cities in Alaska and Hilo, Hawaii (36 clear days). The city on the West Coast with the fewest clear days is Astoria, Oregon with 50 days. The lowest California city listed is Eureka with 77 clear days.

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:

As usual, rates are all over the board depending on what your scenario is. This has nothing to do with the current market, it's always like this. Short term rates fluctuate different than long term rates, as well as jumbo vs. conforming, not even taking into other items which I list below. So to compare apples to apples, I will let you know around where the A paper-conforming loans are at. If your loan isn't in this boat, it is hard to tell where your rate would be at without seeing your scenario individually. Keep in mind these are just current estimates:

Conforming:
3 year ARM 4.875%
5 year ARM 5.0%
30 Year Fixed 5.625%

Non-Conforming (Jumbo):
5 year ARM 6.375%
30 Year Fixed 6.875%

As I stated last week, "conforming" differs from county to county in California, and rates above $417,000 loan amount will differ slightly.

Some items that can influence your rate:

- Credit Score
- Whether your property is your Primary Residence, Investment, or Second Home
- How much loan you need compared to the value of the home (LTV = Loan to Value)
- Assets
- Income
- How many units are on the property
- Whether you are getting cash out (refinance only)
- Did I say credit score?

If you have any questions about any of these topics, feel free to ask. I can be reached at 805-540-0866 or RBaker@PeregrineLending.com

I updated the Just Sold report.
http://www.slocountyhomes.com/just_sold.htm

Also, the New Listings, REO/Foreclosure, and Short Sale Listing Reports now have their own buttons on the Home Page.

There are no secrets Realtors have to sell a home. Nor do they have a database of Buyers that, upon getting your listing, they will contact and have an offer (or two) for you.

To sell a home there are THREE things you need to do well to have the best chance of selling your home;

1) Price it right
2) Present it well
3) Get plenty of exposure

I could spend a couple pages on all three but let's just stick with price. Below is from an article written for Realtors about walking away from homes not priced to sell. I thought this gave a different perspective so here it is...

"If you've been in real estate for even a few months you know it's easy to find sellers who think their place is the best house on the planet and that it ought to sell for many thousands more than his neighbor's trash heap. My advice is, if the seller doesn't want to face reality, move on to one that does. Otherwise you'll be spinning your wheels.

Because ultimately, if your seller won't listen to reason, that's time lost from a seller who will. So to save time in the long run, talk to the seller as quickly as you can to find out what hurdles you may have to jump over.

And here you need what's called the walk away price—the price you have to walk away from and move on to another seller because you know there's no way the house will fetch that price. You have to be able to walk away from the seller, because to me price is indicative of everything in real estate. It all comes down to price."

The above is relevant only IF the Realtor is good an determining the value of a home in today's market without leaving money on the table or pricing it too high that it just sits. From what I'm seeing...most aren't doing a good job at this.

Here are a few more Springtime photos from yesterday. These were taken in Arroyo Grande.
(click for larger photos)

"Pay Attention, this is what you do when you have a back itch."

(click for larger image)

Spring is here!

I took this in Atascadero today while previewing a property to list. The Central Coast is such a wonderful place to call home!!!

The New Listings report has been modified so you should no longer get the "property not found" when you click on the MLS # for details. I also made it easier for you to see the ones you hadn't viewed before by grouping them by date. The best I could do at this time is to list the new listings starting as of 2 days ago. That's because one of my vendors that supplies the property detail won't modify the time when they download the listing file to pick up a newer version. Hopefully I can get them to change this in the future.

http://www.slocountyhomes.com/newlistex.php

You also won't get the property not found for the foreclosure listings and short sale listings reports either.

Active foreclosures:
http://www.slocountyhomes.com/reoex.php

Active Short Sales:
http://www.slocountyhomes.com/shortex.php

Bookmark these reports as I haven't added them to the home page and menus as of yet.

The way you can find the newer listings on the foreclosure and short sale reports is to look at the MLS # range on the New Listings report. Then you know if a MLS # on the other reports is above a certian number, it's a newer listing.

Here's an article from the Today show called "The 10 Mistakes Home Sellers Make".

Here are my comments on this list of mistakes.

1. Open Houses
Open Houses are a great way for Realtors to get Sales leads, that's why they do Open Houses. But, the leads Realtors get are usually NOT from people that are interested in buying the Open House. A Top Producer will not do an Open House unless they need leads. They might do the first one to meet the neighbors in case someone else is looking to list their home. After that, they'll get someone in the office that's looking for leads to sit on future Open Houses. Open Houses are also something a Listing Agent will do when the Seller isn't happy that their home hasn't sold to show the Seller they are "doing something".

If you want to leave your home for 5 hours a weekend day so you can have strangers walk through your home, do as many Open Houses as the Listing Agent will do. Who knows, that one person that walks in may be interested in your home but the odds are against you. If you have gone to Open Houses yourself, chances are that the Realtor didn't even ask your name and let you walk around the home yourself. Maybe you were lucky and the agent was talking on their phone the entire time you were there! Just make sure you don't leave anything small laying around. Also, lock up your medications as this is becoming an item that more and more people find missing after an Open House.

2. I agree with this one. Make your home EASY TO SHOW. A Call/Lockbox option is the one most Realtors like.

3. Don't hang around during an Open House OR when someone comes to view your home.

4. I haven't seen someone say "price is firm" in a MLS listing so I think people around here already figured it out that this is something you don't do.

5. Yes, consider every offer. If you have an offer on the table, your Realtor should work it to see if it can turn into something you are ok with.

6. The first offer is always a relief but you should count on your Realtor to give you advice if the offer is a good one.

7. I'd go one step further on this one. I'd get a home inspection before you list your home. Then you know everything that a Buyer could come back to you to renegotiate after the initial price has been agreed upon. The report can be used by a good Realtor during the initial price negotiation and easily get back the money you paid for the inspection (and probably a lot more).

8. Yes, you want Buyers to imagine your home as theirs. I don't believe that artwork is a major problem (unless there is tons) but personal photos is something I would remove. I watch people when I've taken them to look at a home and the majority of them will stop and look at the personal photos. You want them to be focused on viewing your home to purchase, not looking at your family history!

9. Yes, the more light, the better. As for light bulbs, the energy saving fluorescent bulbs are great but some take a long time to get bright. If someone comes to view your home and the lights aren't already on, these bulbs may save you a few cents on electricity but they may also hurt a showing. I'd switch out to the ole' incandescent bulbs, especially in the main rooms.

10. I love pets but do agree that showing a home that has pets is a negative for most Buyers. I know that there are some things you just can't avoid so just try to make the best of it and put away as much pet-related items as possible when you have a showing.

What are the rental prices for housing in SLO County?

Here's a chart from Cal Poly that shows the average monthly rental costs for houses and apartments around the County. Good info!

The New York Times did a very nice writeup on Cambria. Read the article here.

(thx Scott for sending me the link!)

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:

Hello everyone, it is good to be back blogging after a short hiatus. A lot has happened in the mortgage world since I last posted anything. The Fed cut rates and the conforming loan limits were temporarily raised to spark the Real Estate and Mortgage industries. Changes were also made for FHA (Federal Housing Administration); FHA loans are different from standard loans in the fact they are backed by the government and help first time home buyers. It is a whole topic in itself that I can get into at a later date, but for now you can read about it here: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/fhahistory.cfm.

The loan limits were raised for FHA loans throughout California and our company can offer FHA loans so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

As far as the loan limits on other loans is concerned, they were raised based on each county. San Luis County went from $417,000 to $687,500 for a conforming loan. Every lender is treating this limit different and they are making their own product names for it like "Agency Conforming" or "Conforming/Jumbo"…it’s not the typical conforming rates….it’s in-between the conforming and jumbo. Either way it is better than what we had. To see a chart of all the loan limits by county you can go here.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments at 805-540-0866 or RBaker@PeregrineLending.com

Someone emailed me the other day asking why I was so hung up on EMPTY FLYER BOXES?

Here's why...

Recent studies have shown the top 3 ways Buyers found out about the home they purchased were:

1) The Internet
2) A Realtor
3) The Yard Sign

Beyond those, everything else is in the noise level these days (newspaper, open houses, real estate magazines, friend/relative, auction, etc.).

So, if you want to have a good shot at selling a home you need to make sure you do a good job with the Top 3. You need a good presentation of the home and lots of Internet exposure. You should also do things specfically targeted at other Realtors, such as a property website that another Realtor will send to their prospective Buyer. In this case, the property website shouldn't have the Listing Agents name/brokerage on it as other Realtors don't want to send stuff to their clients with another Realtors name (or photo) on it.

For the Yard Sign, one benefit is to have the Brokerage name on the sign recognized by Buyers. Remember that a lot of Buyers are coming from out of the area so choosing a nationwide brokerage is your best bet (Century 21 is the most recongized name in real estate).

Then there is the FLYER BOX.

If you get a Buyer that is out looking and they drive by your home, you want them to take away something for them to remember your home. You want a good brochure with GREAT photos. If you have an empty box, you may have lost a potential Buyer.

Also, an empty flyer box sends the message to some that "this home may already be sold". That's another way to lose a prospective Buyer.

So, to me an empty flyer box is ANTI-MARKETING. If a Listing Agent doesn't want to put any effort in keeping the flyer box full, they aren't providing an adequate service and I'd CANCEL the listing if your agreement allows you to since it's not helping you one bit.

Multiple people sent me an explanation of where Rabobank got its name. Here's the origin...

Two Dutch banks, Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Bank in Utrecht and Coöperatieve Centrale Boerenleenbank in Eindhoven, merged in 1972. The name Rabobank is a portmanteau of RA iffeise